‘Back to the Future’ seems to be the approach and practice of Albania’s domestic politics after the general elections of June 28th.
The expression “back to the future” is borrowed from the well-known Spielberg film and from the article of the International Relations scholar John Mearsheimer, both of the same title.
The film tells the story of a teenager who accidentally goes back in time from 1985 to 1955. He thus meets his parents during their high school years and ends up giving rise to a romantic interest in his mother-to-be. The teenager must undo this damage he has made to history by facilitating his future parents’ falling in love and above all by trying to find a way to return to real time, to 1985.
Through his famous article published at the end of the Cold War, the Realist scholar of International Relations, John Mearsheimer, argues that the only way to avoid international conflicts after the Cold War is by going back in history to the nuclear arms race.
Spielberg’s film where the teenager who had gone back in time returns to real time was extremely successful, cashing in 380 million dollars and great reviews, while Mearsheimer’s theory according to which international peace and stability are only possible by going back in history has already gone through two decades of being proven wrong.
Let us return, however, to the ‘film’ and ‘theory’ of Albanian ‘Back to the Future’ politics. Albanian politics have gone back at least ten years. First of all, through the opposition’s, or rather, the Socialist Party’s parliamentary boycott. The justification is the same as that of ten or twelve years ago when the opposition of the time boycotted parliament and accused the government of manipulation of the electoral process. The political environment, the opposition and its chairman are in fact re-depicting an Albania of a decade ago, when election results were uncontested only if the opposition won.
Political Albania has gone back in history, revisiting conflictual politics, lack of consensus and of compromise. The motto of Albanian political parties and politicians has ling been the zero-sum game. Before the elections, when the government and the opposition were enjoying some sort of a honey moon, concluding endless compromises, including the consensus to amend the Constitution overnight, one was made to believe that conflict as a political instrument and the zero-sum logic were coming to an end. Alas no, old habits die hard and Albanian politics has stepped back to the same trenches it had inhabited so far.
Secondly, the socialist opposition, and its chairman Edi Rama in particular, have stepped back from another perspective too. And this time not one, but two decades back. The past three weeks have seen the conduct of the election campaigns for the Socialist Party chairmanship according to the principle of one member – one vote. Albanians have been served a theatrical, ridiculous farce, carrying no trace of seriousness. A rival was concocted to run the chairmanship race, winning 3 percent of the votes against the plebiscitary victory of 97 percent of Mr Edi Rama. The similarity, a similarity equal to that between two water drops, between this race and those conducted during Albania’s dictatorship is striking. This farce bears striking similarity to the election of Albania’s president in 1991 too, when a rival was arranged for, a rival who beyond all belief voted for the president of the time, Ramiz Alia, instead of voting for himself.
Who must bring Mr Rama, not Spielberg’s ‘teenager’, back to real time, to 2009? And most importantly, what path must be followed for the return? The path chosen to be re-elected, that farce we saw according to the principle of one member – one vote, was certainly not the right path. Perhaps confrontation with some simple truths is a way. And one could start with the fact the Socialist Party lost the elections.
At the lead of the Socialist Party, as the main opposition force, Edi Rama managed to assure the largest number of parliamentary seats in these twenty years of opposition history. At the same time, Edi Rama’s electoral battle was a spectacular demise. Many objective voices, clean of party ties, assert that Edi Rama lost precisely those elections that no opposition in the world should have lost.
Edi Rama gave his consent to change laws and competences, including the Constitution, thrilled by the idea that the next prime minister of Albania would be Sultan. He rejected all those voices that tried to prevent the legalization of this ‘Sultan’, thus implying that he would be the future premier, not Berisha. There are good sultans and bad ones, according to Rama’s logic. And Rama would have been Albania’s good sultan. Edi Rama meticulously selected the names of those who would run for Parliament through a process bearing no resemblance to fair competition or race, a process that went as far as disturbing inner party balances. More often than not, those selected hardly had any days of experience in public administration.
Edi Rama thought, believed and tried to defeat Berisha, get rid of Ilir Meta, Fatos Nano and other personalities within the SP. And there is only one name for this strategy – zero sum game. Mayor, Party Chairman and Premier all in one, all at once.
The head of the Socialist Party ignored Albanian voters, by inviting them only to vote against Sali Berisha, instead of offering a concrete alternative. He shocked a great deal of the SP declaring his political vision to be beyond the left and the right. And the declaration was being made to a considerable part of the SP who was and continues to be communist in its way of thinking. The SP Chairman, who was supposed to win the elections, astonished, or rather, frightened Albanians when he said that he was not a politician but a missionary. Think for a while of who claimed such a role and think of where that ended.
Last but not least, Edi Rama scared and raised many doubts among Albanians when he himself failed to join the electoral contest. Many Albanians began to doubt the motives behind the decision of the Party Chairman to stay out of the contest. By deciding not to candidate himself in the general elections, by not taking the risk of non-election, Edi Rama safeguarded the post of Mayor of Tirana. And that is exactly what happened. Edi Rama lost the elections but remains Mayor of the capital where one can easily observe the frozen or stagnant progress and change. In fact, kiosks and informality are on the rise once more.
Taking in account all that has happened, and other things too, it is appropriate to say that the Head of the opposition has traveled too far back in time, but not accidentally like Spielberg’s teen character. His earliest return to real time is also his political salvation.
